Extending an Olive Branch
by AlternativeSplicing
Summary: Akko becomes curious of the history between her idol and once professor. In her quest for answers, she pays a visit to the one who once sought to destroy her life. Chariot and Croix reflect on the past, and struggle to make sense of decade old feelings.
1. Chapter 1

There's a burning question on Akko's mind.

She stands in the centre of the classroom, her professor (and childhood idol) stood before her with a gentle smile as she congratulates her for her progress in today's session before giving permission for her to leave. Akko frowns, her eyebrows knitting together, her cheeks slightly puffed as she considers intently. She doesn't move, and Professor Ursula's smile fades into an expression of mild concern.

"Akko, is there something wrong?" she asks, her voice soft, lilting, and just slightly confused.

Akko scrunches up her face a bit more before casting her reservations to the metaphorical wind. In true Akko fashion, she speaks before her brain has a chance to reconsider if it should stop her.

"Professor Ursula, how did you become friends with Professor Croix?"

The change in her teacher's face is instantaneous. A cluster of emotions wobble in her bright red eyes, shock being a dominant one, sadness another. Akko fidgets uncomfortably, not having meant to bring up bad memories for her mentor, but the question has been on her mind for quite some time and her resistance had finally crumbled.

"I-I mean, uh," the girl interjects hastily, hoping to spare Ursula further discomfort, "you don't have to say. Or anything. Uh. I was just, curious."

The professor bites her lip and fumbles a bit with the tip of her ponytail, finding it hard to look directly into Akko's eyes for the moment. Just the name, _her_ name, renders her thoughts briefly into a mess. There's a lot of emotions tied to that name. Complicated emotions. Bitter and sweet memories that come with them.

Ursula Callistis, Chariot Du Nord, inhales and thinks she ought to get a hold of herself. Akko is still staring at her blankly, waiting uncertainly for her response.

"Akko," she begins, deciding that her student's name was a safe and simple place to start. "Is there any reason in particular you're asking me this now?"

"Well…"

Akko hums, struggling to put her thoughts to her voice. It takes a few seconds before she slowly starts to speak, her words selected with uncharacteristic care.

"Uh… No particular reason, I guess. Just that, you and Professor Croix seemed to be pretty good friends once, right? I saw that photo you sometimes look at. She looked… a lot different."

She ends her explanation with a nervous grin and a shrug of her shoulders, knowing that it wasn't a very great one. Ursula purses her lips and thinks quietly for a few seconds before she sighs. There's a definite pain floating in her eyes, but also a warmer, subdued sense of nostalgia.

"She was," Chariot murmurs quietly. Her voice is quiet, almost reverent. She glances down at Akko, who now watches her enraptured, clearly expecting further elaboration. Her heart tugs, for this is a familiar sight to her now, albeit before for different reasons. But keeping secrets of her past from the girl hadn't turned out well last time, and, well, she supposes there isn't any harm in this. Save for perhaps, towards her own emotional state.

"Well, hmm, let me see… I guess it would be best to start with…" Chariot frowns, then to Akko's surprise, her teacher's contemplative expression changes into that of a slightly embarrassed smile.

"A-ah, that's right, you probably already know that I did rather poorly in my time at Luna Nova, correct?"

Akko grins and bobs her head down excitedly, tact forgotten, as was typical for her. "Oh! Yeah, the fountain showed me!"

"D-did it now…" Chariot represses a small grimace as she silently curses that particular piece of magical architecture. Of all the things to show to Akko, that was what it decided on? "W-well anyways, since you already know all about that, I won't elaborate on that."

She pretends not to see Akko's mild pout of disappointment.

"But, well… as I think you can imagine, it had all been very disheartening to me. I recall you once asked me, what I had wanted to become when I was a child?"

Akko sits up straighter, her eyes wide and practically glittering at the memory. Her student nods, and Chariot can't help but marvel a bit at how long ago it feels. How different a time it had been, when Akko had still remained in the dark to her secret identity, when every reverent compliment of Shiny Chariot that came out the girl's mouth shaped itself into another stake to be hammered into Ursula's heart.

"My dream…" the teacher pauses, her eyes and voice trembling with a feeling that's both nostalgic and sorrowful, "My dream… for the longest time, it was to become a witch who could bring joy to the world. I wanted to become a performer who could dazzle my audience, inspire them, lift them up. To give them a grand and exciting time, and to show them how wonderful magic could be…"

"And you did!" Akko interjects, practically standing up in her seat as she leans forward in excitement. Stars all but shine in her eyes, the characteristic gleam they gained whenever she was reminded of her childhood idol. "You became Shiny Chariot!"

Ursula smiles, a tinge of sadness to her gaze. Akko's reverence of her past self is no longer a constant dagger to her heart, but her guilt has never completely faded and she doubts it ever will.

"Yes…" she agrees quietly, and takes a deep breath as she prepares for what will come next.

"But, I don't think…"

Her breath catches despite herself, and her voice stops. A familiar pain cradles her heart, one she's grown unpleasantly accustomed to over the past decade. A sweet memory that now sat heavily in the back of her mind, tainted with grief, clung to it a wish for simpler times long ago. She forces herself to continue before Akko notices.

"I don't think… I could have made that dream into a reality if it… if it wasn't for Croix."

Chariot almost flinches when the name leaves the tip of her tongue. It's as though she physically tastes the bitter sweetness. Akko, merely stares, not quite registering, before her eyes widen in visible surprise.

"…Really?" The girl's voice is taut with confusion. Chariot cracks a small smile when she tilts her head, evidently not noticing that she was doing so.

"I… well," the professor takes off her hat and runs her hand through her fiery red hair, "I think you can imagine that the teachers certainly didn't approve of my vision. They still don't, really. My grades certainly didn't help to convince them. And although I had quite a number of friends who were sympathetic to my plight, I don't think any of them really took me seriously in that regard either. It was hard… to have faith in myself, when it seemed no one else did."

Akko visibly slumps, looking very sympathetic.

"Yeah… know how that feels…" she mutters quietly, eyes downcast. Chariot feels an almost maternal urge to comfort her, but decides that continuing with her story would very quickly divert her student's attention anyhow.

"However, not too long after I enrolled into Luna Nova was when I first met Croix." She states, relieved when Akko raises her head again, unhappiness replaced with a flicker of curiosity. Chariot inhales deeply, again. Memories that she'd locked away creep their way back in, and she's almost surprised that she can't stop the affectionate, nostalgic smile that begins to grow on her face.

"She was such a grump back then, most people had a hard time approaching her." The professor recalls, her smile becoming ever fonder. Her eyes all but glow with unlidded emotion. "But, she was actually so very kind. She never looked down on me. And of all people, she was the first to tell me that my dream wasn't worthless. That… I had to believe."

Suddenly it feels as though the world has grown much quieter. Akko's presence fades as she loses herself in the memory of a time long past.

"Could you imagine that?" she asks, more to herself than the girl listening to her in wonder.

"The star student of Luna Nova believed in me when no one else did. Her faith meant everything to me at the time. It felt as though… as long as she believed in me, then it didn't matter if everyone else didn't."

Chariot laughs in spite of herself, even though she can feel tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. The memory of Croix is sharp in her mind, as if no time has passed since then at all. The thick frames that obscured her lovely emerald eyes, the corners of her mouth turned down into the grouchy frown that was her default expression. The surprise that filled her so long ago when she first saw that stern gaze turn gentle and her expression soften. A flood of memories engulf her, sweet ones that are tender and almost break her heart as ruthlessly as they did ten years ago, but Akko's voice brings her back to the present before she succumbs to the raw emotion of merely remembering kinder times.

"Professor Croix… really? Professor Croix helped you follow your dream?"

At last, Chariot is shaken out of her reverie and recomposes herself, although she takes a brief moment to rub her eyes under her glasses. Her expression grows solemn, wistful.

"I told you, she was… very different once. I know you don't have a great impression of her, and well, that's only reasonable. She hasn't done anything to deserve otherwise. But… it's hard for me to forget. It meant so much to me. I-In a way, it still does. It led to so much more."

The wistfulness doesn't leave her face, but her eyes visibly light up as she recalls a memory very dear to her. A memory that Akko would have particular interest in.

"Did you know?" she shoots a bit of a wry grin in her student's direction. "That catchphrase I always had, 'A Believing Heart is your Magic'? I didn't come up with that. Croix was the one who first said it to me. I was feeling down and she wanted to cheer me up, and, I guess it inspired me so much, I thought it was something that everyone deserved to be told."

Chariot waits for the inevitable explosion with practiced patience. Akko doesn't fail to deliver.

"…Whaaaat!?" the girl all but shrieks, practically shooting out of her chair at the revelation. Strands of brown hair fly about in a chaotic frenzy to match the intensity of her shock. "So, all this time, Shiny Chariot's catchphrase was actually Professor Croix's catchphrase!?"

"I-I wouldn't go so far as to call that her c-catchphrase." Chariot stutters, albeit with some amusement at Akko's volatile reaction. "She only really said it a couple of times to me. But, you could say she was its… originator?"

Her student's disbelief starts to fade just a little as she slides back down into her chair and places both her hands on her head, her eyes boring holes into the wooden table. She still looks as though the world had dropped away beneath her feet.

"W-wow… I can't even imagine her saying something like that… it didn't seem like…" Akko frowns and puffs her cheeks, struggling for the right words to justify her outburst. "It seemed like the opposite of what she believed in."

The professor sighs, and it's a hefty, weighted sound. She removes her glasses, an action uncharacteristic of her despite no longer holding her identity a secret from her young admirer, and stares quietly into the fading sunset.

"No, you're right. The Croix you knew had long forgotten that. Still…"

The sky is a lovely myriad of colours at this hour of the day. The lilac hues make her heart ache for what they remind her of as she continues, slowly and hesitantly.

"When you and Diana released the magic of the Grand Triskellion across the globe, I think maybe she finally remembered. I think… I hope her views have changed… If so, maybe it's possible she can change too…"

The scenic view begins to blur and Chariot has to steel herself. Thinking of the future was frightening, as was hope itself. She doesn't think she could bear the devastation of heartbreak a second time.

"Professor…" Akko mumbles, shifting uncomfortably at the sight of her idol clearly on the verge of tears. Chariot recovers, just barely, and the pressure never leaves her eyes.

"…Croix was the one to have faith in me so long ago. I've always been grateful, but now it's my turn to believe in her. I know she can be a good person. I just… hope that she can see that too."

She tears her gaze away from the sky to smile at an unusually solemn-looking Akko, and despite the wobble in the corners of her mouth, it's a genuine one. The final admission, despite how difficult it was to put to words, makes her feel lighter. It's a little easier to breathe.

A silence settles over them. Chariot feels as though there is nothing left she is comfortable to admit. Akko has too much on her mind and can't decide what she wants to say first.

"…I never knew. After everything it's… it's kind of weird knowing what she used to be like. She was so… nice?"

And Akko really did mean it. She was completely blindsided by the revelations of her former professor's past self.

"Yeah… She really was…" Chariot murmurs, slipping her glasses back on.

"…You and Professor Croix… wow, she was… you used to be really close then, huh?"

It had never quite hit her, up to this point, just the extent of how complicated her professors' pasts could have been. She'd had a vague idea after watching Professor Ursula and Professor Croix's interactions, she wasn't _that_ oblivious, but all this had been… somewhat overwhelming.

Her mentor looks away once more. There's an expression of deep pain on her face.

"She once… meant the whole world to me. I wish that never had to change. If… if only the Claiomh Solais hadn't…"

The voice that had once upon a time in Akko's childhood filled her with wonder and bedazzlement and pure awe now sounded so very… miserable. Chariot wipes her eyes with a sleeve, and it becomes clear even to Akko that if the conversation continued any longer that her mentor would no longer be able to hold back tears.

"I'm sorry Akko, I'm not sure if I can-"

"I-It's okay professor" Akko all but screeches, waving her hands in front of her guiltily. "Please don't apologize! I was the one being nosy! Don't cry!"

Chariot laughs a little at that, feeling somewhat abashed at just who it was that felt the need to comfort her right now.

"It's alright Akko. That would be most unbecoming of me. It's getting late either way, you don't want to be punished for breaking curfew again no?"

"A-Ah! You're right!" At this, Akko practically tumbles out of her seat, nearly tipping over the chair and narrowly avoiding a stumble down the steps. She stands ramrod straight in front of her mentor and swiftly bows.

"Thank you for everything today Professor Ursula! Especially telling me all that stuff when you didn't have to!"

Chariot giggles lightly at Akko's show of formality and gives her a gentle pat on the head.

"Akko, I told you it's alright. I chose to tell you after all. But if that's everything, you really should be on your way."

The girl straightens and nods, a grin on her face, but her eyes are thoughtful. Contemplative. Almost, determined? A mild concern presses at the back of Chariot's mind. That's a sight normally only present when Akko's about to be up to one of her hare-brained schemes, but before she can comment on that, her student all but charges out of the classroom as she hurls a farewell over her shoulder.

"Yes, Professor Ursula! Goodnight!"

Chariot waves cordially, and decides that it probably isn't something she needs to worry about.

She begins to gather her books and papers, but finds her mind wandering back to the topic of their conversation. She tries to pry her focus away. It's something she tends to vehemently prevent herself from thinking about, and with years of practice she's become quite good at it. But now that Akko had unearthed… everything that she had tried to bury deep within herself, she finds herself rather unprepared to cope with the raw emotions that had sprung forth.

A tear falls onto one of her books before she realizes what's going on. She freezes for a few moments before moving away from the desk. Now that Akko has left, there is no one to see, no one to maintain the façade for. And isn't she so very practiced in that regard?

The room feels very large. The sunset has disappeared for the most part, and with it the familiar warm, purple hues.

The room feels very empty.

She thinks of warm emerald eyes gazing into her own, a quiet voice telling her to dry her tears. She all but feels the warm hand gently resting atop her head to ruffle her short, scruffy hair.

 _A believing heart is magic._

The feelings are as raw and painful as when they'd first cut into her ten years ago.

It's so, very lonely.

Clutching her hands to her chest, as though wrapped around that precious memory, Chariot du Nord cries quietly into the night.

* * *

"R-Really? Professor Ursula told you all this? A-All that stuff about Professor Croix?"

Akko nods, somewhat glumly, as she sits on her bed fiddling with her hands. Lotte occupies the nearby chair, still reeling from what she'd just heard from her roommate, a closed copy of _Night Fall_ clasped in between her hands.

"Hmm… wouldn't have figured." A dry voice weaves its way over from where Sucy is sat at her desk, staring at her potions. Her expression is impassive as always, but she's ceased her experiment for the moment to listen to Akko's tale.

"It's so… weird, what could have happened to change her so much?" Akko laments as she throws herself backwards onto her bed, arms crossed behind her head. "How does that even happen?"

"More easily than you might think," Sucy mutters, picking up one of her vials and gazing absently at the bright purple liquid sloshing inside. Despite the customary nonchalance in her raspy voice, she looks at least a little bit thoughtful.

"Did Professor Ursula say?" Lotte asks hesitantly. Akko shakes her head.

"No, not really." A long sigh. "All I know is that it had to do with the Shiny Rod. I don't think she wanted to talk about it."

"It sounds like it would be hard to talk about…" Lotte murmurs, the sadness in her eyes an honest display of her natural empathy.

Half-heartedly nodding her agreement, Akko gazes upwards into the bunk bed above with a frown. She's not quite sure what to make of everything she's learned in the past hour. It certainly hadn't been quite what she was expecting, for after all, the Professor Croix she had known hardly resembled the gentle, thoughtful person her idol spoke about so fondly. It seems impossible to reconcile the two images as the same being.

Her frown deepens further. She doesn't even know what to think of her former teacher anymore. Professor Ursula had sat her down some time after the madness died down to inform her exactly the extent to which Croix had gone to hurt her specifically. It had been very devastating to learn, of course. The woman she trusted, downright admired, had turned out to be manipulating her all along, stringing her like a puppet merely for the sake of getting back at her dear mentor. Her machinations had been just shy of causing an outbreak of war. And, even if unintentionally, her creations had slipped from her control and endangered countless lives, a threat that had only been dispelled in part through Akko's own efforts alongside that of her closest friends.

But then Akko remembers the expression on Ursula's face as she recounted childhood memories, and she thinks that it can't be anything other than love she sees in her mentor's sorrowful eyes.

What kind of person did Professor Croix have to be for Chariot to still care so much, even after everything that she'd done?

It's becoming very confusing for Akko to continue this train of thought and she groans, bringing her hands to her head and digging her fingers into the strands of her long brown hair.

"A-Akko, are you okay?" Lotte, ever concerned, peers over at her nervously. Sucy returns to her experiment, nonplussed.

"Gah… It's so complicated and weird… and I know that I don't know a lot of stuff that must have happened, but, I just can't accept it!"

Akko sits up straight in bed and pouts, eyebrows arching downwards in frustration. "It's so awful that it all would have turned out this way! It's horrible!"

Sucy shrugs over from her desk as she prepares a small pipette.

"It can't be helped. People are complicated."

"But…"

Akko trails off, looking down at her hands. She feels a stab of discomfort as she remembers her mentor's expression near the end of their conversation.

"Professor Ursula… I think she really misses her. Professor Croix, that is." Akko clenches at the bedsheets, feeling very helpless. "She looked like she was going to cry."

Neither Lotte nor Sucy looked as though they had anything to say to that. A solemn silence settles over them, broken only intermittently by the clinking of Sucy's glassware.

In the midst of Akko's troubled thoughts, she wonders if Professor Croix thought of Professor Ursula -well, Chariot- as fondly as her idol did of her. Did Professor Croix regret what became of their relationship too? Did she regret anything about the mess that occurred as a result of it?

She didn't get to talk with Professor Croix really after the revelation of her mentor's true identity, that devastating night on the building rooftops where she'd been forcefully confronted with the possibility that her whole life was spent chasing a nothing that was forever out of reach. And even though she had technically seen and worked together with the former professor in the Arcturus forest to absolve the whole missile threat debacle, there hadn't really been the time to discuss anything other than their plan to stop the pointless slaughter of millions. And after _that_ was over, Croix had been carted off to prison before Akko could have even considered talking to her about all that had happened.

In the middle of that train of thought, Akko furrowed her eyebrows. An idea suddenly took root in her mind, blooming with each passing second as her eyes widened in excitement.

She practically leaps off the bed, adrenaline rushing through her veins and an enormous grin stretches from ear to ear. Lotte comes close to shrieking in surprise, but has grown accustomed enough to her roommate's spontaneous behavior to refrain herself from doing so. Sucy hardly even blinks, but turns away from the tube she's holding to stare blankly at her friend all the same.

"I've got it!" Akko exclaims, her voice just barely short of shouting.

"You've got it?" Lotte repeats, evidently confused, but there's already a wariness beginning to spread across her soft facial features. A similar expression, albeit subtler, grows on the pale witch sitting next to her. They wait, almost nervously, for whatever outrageous, possibly stupid idea that's about to spring forth from the creative whirlwind of Akko's imagination.

They would not be disappointed.

Standing tall, feet planted firmly, and hands placed upon her hips, Akko stares forward intently with determined, fiery eyes as she loudly announces her mind.

"I'm going to visit Professor Croix!"

* * *

 **This is a little idea I've had for a while, and I'm not sure entirely where I'll be going with it, but it's something I'd like to experiment a bit with. Probably won't be very ship heavy, but there's definitely going to be some lingering feelings (old and new) between our favourite gay witch profs.**


	2. Chapter 2

There's a lengthy silence as Akko stands in the centre of the room, a determined grin planted firmly on her face as she stares at her roommates. Her roommates stare back, blankly. It's taking a moment for them to process her words.

Lotte reacts first.

"W-What!?" she actually does shriek now, her glasses almost slipping off in her surprise. Her mouth gapes wide open and she stares at Akko as though she's grown a second head.

"What." Sucy repeats, flatly. There's something that distinctly resembles emotion on her face. A rare occurrence.

Akko's grin somehow grows even wider as she readies the explanation for her astounding epiphany.

"I didn't get to talk with Professor Croix with the whole missile thing going and all. But that doesn't mean I can't talk to her now!" The exuberant girl nods, finding her own logic to be very sound. For her roommates, on the other hand, that could not be any farther from the truth.

"Actually, it does." Sucy states, utterly deadpan, which is her own way of expressing incredulity.

"She's in jail."

"Well, I just have to go to jail then!" Akko decides out loud. She pauses and frowns, thinking over that last sentence in a rare moment of self-awareness, before hastily backpedaling. "N-Not in that way of course. I'm not going to break the law or anything!"

"A bit too late for that," Sucy mumbles, evidently recalling past escapades that had skirted them dangerously close to legal repercussions.

"A-Akko… I, uh, listen… I don't think visiting a convict is going to be that simple…" Lotte, ever the voice of reason, finds her voice at last. To this, Akko merely shrugs.

"It can't be thaaaat bad, I mean, people visit other people in prison all the time. The weekend is coming up, we can just go and ask!"

Lotte casts a nervous glance to Sucy, who merely shrugs, having gotten over any surprise she might have initially had. It's Akko after all. As her roommates, they'd learned long ago that if they ever wanted to preserve their sanity, they needed to understand a fundamental truth about their situation, and it was that Akko did Akko things and came up with absurd Akko plans. And once Akko got an idea into her head, she would bulldoze after her goal with blind determination until she succeeded, discarding any second thoughts or even the idea of failure even as an option.

Still, Lotte is too sensible to not at least try to deter her foolhardy friend, even if she already knew she won't succeed. Hesitantly, she tries to think of a logical rebuttal to this crazy plan.

"A-Akko, do you even know where she is? Is it even possible to just, go there casually and ask them about this?" At this point, Akko finally takes a moment for reconsideration. It fills Lotte with just the smallest amount of relief. Her hope lasts for all of three seconds as her friend straightens up once more with a fiery glint in her eyes.

"It can't be that hard to figure out! We can ask Diana or something. And well, we won't know unless we go see, right?"

Helplessly, Lotte looks over at Sucy again, desperate for some backup. But to her dismay, a familiar sharp-toothed grin splits across the face of her other roommate, and she silently concedes that the battle has been lost.

"This looks like it might be interesting…" Sucy cackles, looking very morbidly pleased. "Try not to get arrested yourself though, Akko. I have a few experimental brews coming up and I'll be needing to have you around for those."

Akko makes a noise of complaint, her expression the perfect image of disgruntled exasperation.

Lotte breathes a heavy sigh.

"Akko… I know you're curious but, is it that important to you? Visiting Professor Croix?"

Her friend pointedly crosses her arms and nods sagely, an expression of firm determination planted on her face.

"I don't want to just do nothing, it doesn't feel right! I want to get to know her. The real Professor Croix, that is!" Her eyes all but blaze at this point, and her voice shakes with the intensity of her passion.

Lotte resigns herself to the fact that they've officially flown past the threshold of reconsideration. Nothing will change Akko's mind now. She sighs once more, but can't help the small smile that begins to spread on her face, and when she tilts her head slightly, she can see that Sucy is doing the same. This is Akko at her best and worst, stubborn to a fault yet unwaveringly true to her own conviction.

And despite her none too small misgivings, Lotte finds herself thinking she wouldn't want it any other way.

* * *

Akko, true to her word, does indeed discover where Croix has been incarcerated, albeit not from Diana as she had originally intended.

Instead, she notices Professor Finneran marching through the halls and is struck by inspirational lightning. She _unintentionally_ dashes through the halls in full view of the professor, _accidentally_ breaking the strict no-running policy as stated clearly in the student handbook. When Finneran shrieks at her, as expected, and breaks into a long-winded rant, as expected, Akko _casually_ muses aloud that running alone shouldn't be such a big deal that it would, say, _land herself in jail_. Finneran, at the limit of her patience, snaps back that if she continued her flagrant disregard for rules into adulthood, then it might become a serious possibility. Akko, of course, _innocently_ is reminded of Professor Croix and wonders if that's what happened to her after the missile crisis. Where, oh where, could she _possibly be?_

At the end of the day, Akko has discovered that the former professor was currently held in the Aquila Aureae Correctional Facility, located by a leyline just over Switzerland. She's also hit with detention and spends the evening washing dishes, but she convinces herself that it was all worth it as she scrubs stains off silverware for a two whole miserable hours before returning to her room, exhausted, to share the news.

"Akko, couldn't you have just asked Professor Ursula or Diana and avoided all the trouble?" Lotte asks, levitating a fresh change of clothes to her. There's a note of exasperation to her sympathy.

"But Professor Ursula would probably just get worried," Akko frowns as she shakes her head. "I don't want her to get all concerned for me and everything. And, after I thought about it, I realized asking Diana wasn't a good idea either. She would probably try to stop me and tell me it was a bad idea."

"She'd probably have a point," Sucy points out dryly, tinkering with something at her desk again. "The person you're trying to visit almost blew up a country."

"Hey, she didn't intend to do that." Akko protests, herself a bit surprised at how defensive she sounded. "She also helped us stop it."

"But she did try to hurt you. Several times." Lotte reminds her.

"Well, that's why I'm visiting right? I wanna find out why she wanted to do all that in the first place." To this, Lotte opens her mouth as if to protest, but shuts it just as quickly. It's already been decided that this was a thing Akko was going to do and that nothing was going to stop her. Any point she'd raise now would be futile.

Instead, she decides to turn her attentions to a more practical issue. "How do you intend to get there Akko? You still can't ride a broom well enough…"

She gets a sheepish smile for her troubles, and internally sighs in mental preparation.

"Well… You're right, I'm probably, uh, gonna need some help. From one or both of you."

From the corner of Lotte's eye, Sucy grins unexpectedly. It instantly fills her with dread.

"For once, I don't think I'd mind. I have a couple of specimens that are said to gain unusual properties when exposed to locations of concentrated misery…"

"Wow! Thanks Sucy! I knew I could count on you! Lotte, are you gonna come with?"

Said witch pales as she looks between her roommates, one obliviously bouncing on the spot in anticipation for visiting a convict, the other cackling ominously as she sorted through her dubious stock of fungi. Every survival instinct tells her that she should be staying as far away from this mess as possible, lest she be caught up in something bound to go horribly wrong (as things tended to do whenever Akko's ill-fated schemes were involved) and be spared the potential trip behind bars herself.

But, curse her own kindness and endless patience for the antics of her closest friends, Lotte fears that without _someone_ present to act as damage control, whatever horrible shenanigans Akko and Sucy might be up to would only end up going even _worse_.

And so Lotte, gentle, responsible, overwhelmingly exasperated Lotte, heaves a hefty sigh and gives her roommate a shaky, uncertain smile.

"Y-yeah, I guess I'll come along too."

Akko twirls on the spot, oblivious to Lotte's internal plight, and raises a fist in the air.

"Alright! It's decided then! We're going to go visit Professor Croix!"

* * *

Contrary to Akko's expectations, the Aquila Aureae Correctional Facility is not an ancient stone dungeon with armored guards patrolling its borders. Rather, it's a fairly respectable (but massive) building with a quaint, almost pleasant appearance. It looks as though it could pass for a governmental office, if not for the rather tall iron fence topped with barbed wire.

Presently she stands at the front gate, Sucy and Lotte flanking either side of her. For the first time since the idea took hold, Akko finds herself at a loss for what to do.

"Um, so, now what guys? Have any suggestions?"

Lotte shoots her a look of disbelief.

"Did you not have anything planned out for this? At all?"

"Er…"

Sucy sniffs as she rolls her eyes, taking a brief peek into the bag she's brought with her.

"Not even gonna be surprised. I expect you to figure it out Akko. I refuse to have brought these along for nothing."

Akko complains briefly about Sucy's unhealthy fungi-related obsessions before taking another glance at the gate. There appeared to be two guards situated to either side. Seeing as she was unsure of what else to do, Akko shrugs and decides that's a good place to start. Maybe they'd even let her in without trouble once she explained herself, although even she has to admit that's very unlikely.

Marching up cheerfully, Akko stops herself in front of one of the two women stood before the iron fence.

"Hi!" she starts, sporting a massive grin as she speaks. "I'd like to visit a prisoner. Do you know how I could do that?"

The witch stood before her, clearly accustomed to looking serious, is evidently caught off guard by both her boldness and the ludicrously casual request. She doesn't respond immediately, clearly unsure of if she should be suspicious of this bubbly schoolgirl who had so irreverently walked up to the gateway of a prison for dangerous convicts, but eventually points to the right.

"…If you go that way, you'll find an office. They'll take any questions you have there."

Akko beams in response to that.

"Okay! Thanks!"

And with that, she turns on her heel and walks back to her waiting friends. One of them looks at her in paralyzed disbelief, the other with nonchalant amusement.

"To the right, she says! Let's go!"

And with that, Akko bounces away energetically, seeming rather proud of herself. Sucy shrugs and follows behind without a word, leaving only Lotte to pick her jaw up off the ground and frantically scurry after her teammates.

There was a small brick path, with trees planted neatly to either side, that seemed most logical to follow. Akko is almost skipping as she walks, eyes straight forward and pointed in search of her goal. Lotte repeatedly glances over at the facility and its intimidating steel fence, looking as though she now thoroughly regretted coming along after all. Sucy examines the roots of the trees as they walk past, on the lookout for interesting mushrooms and mutters in dissatisfaction at the lack thereof.

True to the guard's word, in no time they could see a small, administrative-looking building in the distance. A much smaller gate was situated in the fence close to it, by which another guard stood. The witch gave an evident glance of confusion (with no small amount of suspicion) when the three Luna Nova students walked past her, but did not say a word.

Approaching the door, Akko took a glance at the sign above it. She squinted her eyes in an effort to read the runes, but it had never been her best subject, and within seconds she gave up. Deciding it probably wouldn't be too important for her purposes anyway, she turned the knob and stepped into the building.

Inside the room was what looked to be a fairly pleasant waiting area, albeit one that seemed to be completely empty save for the three of them. The only other person in the room was a middle-aged woman sitting at a curved desk, which directly faced the door. A long rectangular carpet led towards her.

The woman looked up as Akko approached with lively energy, hoping to make a good impression.

"Hi there!" She greeted. "There's someone I'd like to see. She's the one that almost blew up a country."

Behind her, Lotte looked as though she wanted at this moment to fade away from existence. Sucy smacked her forehead with a groan.

The woman blinks slowly, evidently unsure of how to immediately respond to this bizarrely exuberant schoolgirl. Not an uncommon reaction upon first meeting Akko Kagari. She glances over their uniforms, giving herself a few seconds to recover before finally managing to muster a reply.

"…Are you three from Luna Nova?"

"Yeah!" Akko chirps, pleased at how instantly recognizable their school's repute made them. "We- Well, I- wanted to visit one of our ex-professors."

A flash of realization crosses the older witch's face, along with a slight hint of disbelief.

"...You can't be referring to Croix Meridies?"

"Yeah! That's her!" Is the girl's excited response. "Professor Croix!"

To Akko's dismay, the woman frowns sternly and her mouth sets into a straight line.

"I'm afraid that wouldn't be possible. Due to the nature of her crimes, only those with special clearance would be permitted visitation rights."

Well, to be fair, even Akko had accepted that there was a high likelihood that she wouldn't be able to simply breeze through the process of visiting a potentially dangerous individual, but it still was a great disappointment to her.

"Aw really? It's not like she's dangerous anymore…"

It came out more of a whine than she had wanted. They had come all this way after all! To find out that it was essentially impossible would be a magnificent waste. Even if Akko didn't have high hopes of swaying the secretary, it wasn't in her nature to give in until the odds were truly insurmountable (and sometimes, even that wasn't enough).

The woman shook her head, looking as though she could not believe that she needed to tell a teenage girl that no, she could not just casually visit a convict who not too long ago put millions of lives at risk.

"Young lady, this is not a matter to be taken lightly! Even if she was your former professor, she is here for a _reason_. You cannot simply stroll in to see her at will."

Akko found, to her great displeasure, that this woman was starting to remind her of Professor Finnelan. However, although she was far from happy about it, even she could see that this was not something she was meant to continue pushing. It wasn't like she was stealing tarts from the cafeteria or something equally inconsequential. The law was… well, the law, after all.

But just as she was about to begrudgingly thank the lady for her time and turn away, Akko heard the creak of the door opening behind her. She initially figured that it was just Sucy being too impatient for the exchange of pleasantries, but when she turned her head around, she saw that both her teammates were still standing close to her.

No, rather, the one who had was in just now was-

"Headmistress Holbrooke?!"

The diminutive senior blinked, clearly surprised.

"Miss Kagari? Miss Jansson and Miss Manbavaran too?"

Akko couldn't believe her eyes or ears. Next to her, Lotte paled white as a sheet and looked about ready to faint as she began to stammer.

"H-Headmistress! W-We're sorry, I-We, we didn't mean anything! We don't-"

Holbrooke cut her off, her bewilderment fading away as she gave the frantic young witch a reassuring smile.

"Please don't be frightened, Miss Jansson, it's not against the school rules to be here after all! Although if Anne saw the three of you here, she just might consider changing that…"

Cutting off her own musings, their headmistress now looked at them with a mix of curiosity and mild alarm.

"However, I'm afraid I must ask, what on earth did the three of you come here for? This is hardly the place to spend your weekend."

To this, Sucy shrugged in Akko's direction, who was all too happy to explain.

"Oh, well uh, I kind of wanted to talk to Professor Croix actually. Sucy's here because she wants to grow her mushrooms with despair, or something. And Lotte just came along too because we did." Akko's eyebrows knit together now as she looked at Holbrooke with evident confusion. "But, Headmistress, why are you here?"

After listening to Akko's explanation, the elderly woman couldn't help but chuckle slightly.

"Oh, well what a coincidence then." Holbrooke smiled as she spoke. "I was here to visit Croix myself."

To this, the young witch gasped.

"No way!" Akko exclaimed, leaning forward with great interest. "Really!?"

"Well, she's Luna Nova alumni after all," responds the senior witch, her smile growing fonder. "I like to come by occasionally to see if she's doing alright. A correctional facility isn't an exciting place to be."

Holbrooke now cocks her head curiously to peer at the young student.

"Why are _you_ visiting her, Miss Kagari?"

"Oh. Um. Well…" Akko stutters for a little bit, grasping at words to define motives she hasn't completely thought through even to herself. "Just, wanted to ask her some stuff. About all that happened. It was uh… kind of a lot, after all."

Her face falls a little as she continues, sullenly.

"I can't see her though… don't have the… 'special clearance' or something."

At this, Akko casts a sullen glance backwards towards the secretary, who to her mild surprise, has stood up respectfully at the sight of Holbrooke in her office. Her headmistress frowns at this.

"Oh, that's not very fair at all."

"Yeah, I know, there's a good reason for it and- Wait what?"

Akko, who had expected the headmistress to express her sympathies but firmly remind her of the importance of following established rules, finds herself performing a verbal double take. All three other people in the room now stare at the elderly woman, still frowning in dissatisfaction. Holbrooke begins to walk forward, passing the three students, until she was standing in front of the desk. Because of her short stature, the secretary remained standing in order to maintain eye contact.

"It's lovely to see you again, Emily."

"You too, Headmistress."

Lotte gasps silently and whispers in Akko's ear about how the secretary must also be Luna Nova alumni. Sucy watches now with slight interest, but reserves most of it for whatever it is she's peeking at in her pouch.

"I say, surely an exception can be made for Miss Kagari? Given that we're here to see the same person, I wouldn't mind having her accompanying me." Holbrooke smiles her kind, elderly smile at the younger woman, who blanches in response. Akko feels her jaw dropping open, and it doesn't close until Sucy snaps it shut for her. Surely, she had misheard?

"Head… Headmistress!" Emily almost shrieks, looking all of a sudden very unprofessional. "Surely that… that can't be allowed?"

"Why not? Please don't worry about it, I'll speak to Dorlin should there be any complaints."

"But… But would it not be dangerous for mere student?"

"Dangerous? Heavens, the inmates couldn't be more harmless here than if they were bound in chains at all hours of the day. And I know that Croix certainly has no interest in harming this young lady here."

Emily takes a long, hard pause to stare at Holbrooke, looking for any signs that the woman was jesting with her. Her calm blue eyes, however, remain utterly serious. Behind her, Akko clenches her fists and holds her breath, not daring to believe that there was still hope for her to get what she came here for after all.

After what seems to be an eternity of silence, the secretary takes a long breath and exhales audibly.

"Well… if it's you, headmistress, it… should be fine. But I'm not sure if I approve…"

Holbrooke's smile widens just a little, her eyes twinkling in good humour.

"Thank you, Emily. I'm sure it means a lot to Miss Kagari here."

She turns to Akko, who startles at the mention of her name. Instinctively, she responds with a yelp and a bow.

"Y-Yes! Thank you, Headmistress! Thank you, Miss Emily!"

The woman behind the desk sighs, not looking at all happy about what she'd been convinced to allow, but the corners of her lips upturn a little at the sight of the young girl's elated show of gratitude. Straightening herself up professionally, she sits down and retrieves a couple of forms from the drawer of her desk.

"Now then, before you can be permitted to enter, there are a few things you must know…"

* * *

 **Nothing too exciting happening in this chapter here, mostly just need it to set up the next one. But Croix will appear soon, I promise.**

 **Gonna try to see if I can stick to a weekly update schedule, but no promises.**


	3. Chapter 3

It was in Akko's nature to act first and think later. As such, she was accustomed to having her schemes rapidly go south and having to improvise quickly to stay on her feet (and not always in the purely metaphorical sense).

Which is why, in the present, for the first time since the idea popped into her head, Akko finds herself at a bit of a loss as she waits outside the cell door for Holbrooke to finish her conversation with the ex-professor first.

The inside of the building looks much older than the outside, if the gritty old stone hallways are any sort of indication. The magically lit candles on the walls cast a pallid glow over the rough bricks, and Akko decides that her previous assumptions on the prison looking like a dungeon aren't quite so off the mark after all.

She bounces on her heels uncertainly, feeling a little bit awkward as she glances over to the guard standing on the other side of the door. Under most circumstances, she might have been driven to try and talk to the only other person in the vicinity, but his rather stony demeanour seemed to ward off any attempt at friendly conversation. Lotte and Sucy had chosen not to follow her in, the former because of nerves and the latter because she was satisfied enough with the effect that the environment seemed to be having on her carefully cultivated fungi. With a troubled sigh, she diverts her gaze back into the ceiling, deep in thought.

All of sudden, Akko feels nervous now that the situation has become a reality, and with barely a hitch too. She'd had a general sense of what she'd wanted to come here to do, but now that she had time to dwell on it, she wasn't entirely sure of what she wanted to say. Where to even start with it all?

 _Good day Professor Croix, why did you try to kill me a bunch of times?_

She frowned. No, that wasn't right, too direct.

 _Hey Professor Croix, why did you and Professor Ursula stop being friends?_

Hmm. Better, but still seemed a bit too personal to start off with.

 _Hi Professor Croix? How are you doing? How's prison?_

That… no, too flippant. Way too flippant. She didn't want to sound like she was mocking her.

Akko probably would have remained there, face scrunched up in intense consideration, for the better part of the hour if she'd been allowed to, but at this moment the wooden door swung open as if to physically crush that train of thought. She yelped in surprise and hopped a small distance away, arms brought up instinctively, then promptly froze in embarrassment when she found herself looking down into Holbrooke's amused blue eyes.

"I hope I didn't alarm you too badly, Miss Kagari." Her headmistress closed the door behind herself as she spoke. "But, if you're ready, you should talk to her as soon as possible. There's a limit to how much time we can spend in here."

Akko blinked in alarm, only now recalling this particular detail in the lengthy list of conditions Emily had made her look over prior to entering. "What? How much time is there left!?"

Holbrooke smiled at her evenly.

"Well, normally a visit is limited to thirty minutes. I've kept my conversation with Croix short for today, so you still have about half that time to discuss with her whatever you wish."

The girl swallowed nervously. She technically wasn't ready at all, any progress she might have made in deciding what to say already having been lost in the panic of the moment. But there was no more time left. She would just have to wing it then. That was fine. Definitely fine. She was used to improvisation after all.

With a not so confident laugh, Akko spouted her assurances that yes, of course she was ready go, she was always ready to go, and that she was most certainly not suddenly starting to regret her decisions after all. Then, steeling herself, heart caught tightly in her throat, Akko gripped the door handle tightly in her grasp and wrenched it open with a determined heave of effort. The flicker of her small ponytail was the last to disappear as she slipped through the door, out of sight.

* * *

When Holbrooke had told her that there was someone else waiting to see her that day, Croix hadn't quite known what to think.

She would have asked her once employer exactly who it was, but the woman's mysterious smile was a fairly good indication that she had no chances of getting a straight answer out of her. The matter had continued to weigh on the back of her mind throughout her exchange of pleasantries with Holbrooke, and did not stop as the headmistress amiably rambled on the current state affairs at Luna Nova.

Who could it possibly be? The first person that came to mind, of course, would have to be Chariot. Logically the one most probable to still want to see her, even if Croix couldn't understand on what basis. On one hand, the thought of seeing her former best friend always brought forth a small spark of elation, no matter how much she convinced herself every day that it wasn't something she deserved. On the other, the prospect was simultaneously terrifying, for she couldn't imagine why Chariot would want to see her or, for that matter, how she would even have anything to say.

Then again, Croix remembered the sound of Chariot's fading voice as she'd risen into the leyline, words that stayed with her every day as she sat dutifully at her desk, nose-deep in government reports and statistics. Words that gave her hope for reconciliation as much as they also hammered nails deep into her heart.

Chariot said that she would wait for her. Such a promise carried an inherent and undeniable implication that, for whatever unfathomable reason, her old friend still did want to see her again.

The twinge in her chest every time she was reminded of this oath aside, it made it unlikelier that Chariot would be the one here to witness her miserable state today. In slightly disappointed acceptance of this fact, Croix returned to brainstorming other possibilities. Perhaps Finneran, here to give another disappointed lecture on the error of her methods. Or maybe Minister Dorlin, with another towering stack of papers for her to analyze.

Atsuko Kagari however, was quite possibly the last person she expected to see standing on the other side of the rusted iron bars.

Croix blinked several times, convinced that she wasn't seeing right. But the image of the young girl, fidgeting awkwardly with evident nervous tension, continued to persist in her vision.

Her mind blanked out, not at all prepared for how to respond to this unexpected scenario. Fortunately for her, Akko had more time to ready herself, and was able to react first.

"You're wearing glasses?"

Akko almost smacked herself. She'd spoken first without thinking as always. Her thoughts had been in disarray as she'd stepped through the doorway, and even though she had decided that a casual greeting would be the best way to go, it all but slipped from her mind when she actually set sights on her former professor.

Croix was not at all what Akko had remembered her to look like. She'd expected to see a confident looking woman, standing proud with her arms crossed and chin up, a charismatic smirk planted firmly across the sharply maintained features of her face. But instead, it took her a moment to even find where the ex-professor was in her cell, hunched up as she was in a corner, partially hidden behind large stacks of paperwork. Where her lilac hair was once meticulously gelled and combed into place, it now looked rather disheveled as it hung down her face, with one particularly unruly lock curling down the side of her face. Her posture was slouched, spine bent and shoulders tucked forward. And her eyes, formerly bright with sly ambition, were now dull and teeming with exhaustion as they barely flickered behind square glasses.

It had been such a jarring contrast from her expectations, the greeting that had been on the tip of Akko's tongue quickly fizzled away. To be replaced instead with the first thing that came to mind upon seeing the imprisoned witch's rather withered state.

Hence, the inappropriately timed inquiry on the glasses.

Croix had been no less ill-prepared to respond to the unexpected observation than she was to Akko's mere presence right now in general. Yet somehow, words found their way to her mouth.

"Er… Yeah." Akko cocked her head at that, not having ever remembered Croix to stumble her words in the past. "They're more efficient than contacts given my current… situation."

"But… Why do you need them? What are you looking at?"

Croix shrugged uncomfortably, visibly unadjusted to the situation, but still making a weak effort to look not too much so.

"The ministry has its hands full, with the return of magic and everything, so they need me to help with interpreting all the statistics. It works towards shortening my sentence."

"Oh…"

There was an awkward pause. Akko was still mentally berating herself for the poor timing of her comment, leaving Croix to break the silence first this time.

"Akko."

The girl snapped to attention, as if she were still a Luna Nova professor that had any shred of authority over her life. The very thought of it filled Croix with familiar feelings of regret and bitterness.

"…Why are you here?"

"Oh… Uh well…" Akko felt her words tripping over her tongue, realizing too late that she still had yet to figure out exactly what she wanted to say. She began to scratch at her head idly as she tried to think of her answer.

It felt as though there was simultaneously everything and nothing to talk about. How could she even begin a conversation with someone who had once strung her along without remorse, playing ruthlessly on her hopes, dreams, and most cursed naivety? If anything, it made more sense that she should want to stay away as far as possible from such a person, to never want to see her or speak a word to her again?

But things never seemed to play out most logically whenever Akko got herself involved, so now here she was instead, purposely confronting the woman who'd been responsible for essentially every major unfortunate thing that had ever befallen her in life, from as early as when she'd first been hopelessly dazzled by Shiny Chariot's performances at the tender age of six. But perhaps even more surprisingly, Akko finds herself bizarrely devoid of resentment, even when face to face with the root of so much of her misery.

Perhaps it's because she's never been good at holding grudges, albeit even she has to admit this is a rather extreme circumstance. Diana she'd initially found to be an insufferable snob, but later came to accept the good intentions behind her forthright criticisms. Hannah and Barbara were the cruelest and most malicious of her detractors, but her heart had still bled for them the day she found them crying alone in the cafeteria over Diana's abrupt departure. And even her beloved mentor, who'd lied to her about her identity for nearly the entirety of her first year, who'd both given her a dream and taken away her means of achieving it, even then she had found it within herself to accept how much her idol had struggled to make up for past wrong doings and offer genuine forgiveness when given enough time to work through her troubled feelings.

Actually, now that she thought about it, that last one was not entirely dissimilar to her current predicament. The sight of Croix as she was now, broken, tired, defeated, filled with too many regrets to count, brought back a familiar memory of how her idol had looked several months before when they'd finally met face to face, with no more secrets kept in between them. The image of Chariot, ten years older, exhausted and injured, yet with her blazing red hair still as bright as the day she first gave Akko her most heartfelt dream, would be forever burned into her memory.

Maybe she was just being a fool, as so many would often accuse her of, albeit not always without merit. But she'd felt at peace when she finally confronted her inspiration turned teacher that day.

And suddenly, Akko felt herself grow calm, thoughts evening out as they sorted themselves from their nervous frenzy.

"I… want to talk to you."

"Well… I figured." Croix answered, a little smartly, and then seemed to flinch at her own words. She sighed and broke eye contact, directing her tired gaze back into her documents. "If you're here to vent, I understand."

"What?" Akko looked genuinely confused at that remark. "No, that's not it at all."

The woman behind the bars didn't look at all convinced.

"You know what I did. To you specifically." Her voice sounded low, defeated. "It would be the only rational reason for you to want to see me again."

To Croix's great astonishment, Akko proceeded to laugh (albeit a little awkwardly) as she sheepishly scratched the back of her head.

"Well… I don't think 'rational' is how people normally describe me…"

It was a little funny now, Croix's expression, which was somewhere a mix between disbelief and utter bewilderment. Akko couldn't imagine ever being able to inspire such a reaction out of her when she had been her confident, suave professor self. But then again, there were many different sides to Croix, some of which she had discovered more painfully than others.

"Anyways, I'm not here to vent or whatever, I think," Akko reiterated, bringing her arm back down to her side. "I just wanted to, ask you some stuff."

The puzzlement faded from Croix's dull eyes, to be replaced by a certain measure of wariness. "Such as?"

Akko frowned, and decided to start with an easy one.

"Why _did_ you do all those terrible things?"

Her former professor seemed to wilt even more, if that were even possible. There was a deep pain in the gaze that she directed straight into the cold stone of her cell floor. A lengthy pause ensued, during which Akko tried not to fidget too obviously in impatience and awkwardness. But just when she was starting to fear that Croix simply wouldn't speak anymore for the next ten or so minutes, her former professor's low rasp of a voice finally broke through the silence.

"Well… I was… am, a pretty terrible person."

Akko blinked, waiting for more, the frown deepening on her face as she slowly realized that there was none.

"What?" She replied, with some indignation. "That can't be it?"

A tired sigh. "What other explanation do you need?"

"There's no way it's that simple!" The young witch exclaimed with insistent fervor. Her hands had balled up at her side as she argued, trembling with tension.

Weary green eyes rose to meet Akko's own intensely burning gaze, for the first time since they had been glued to the ground.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because Professor Ursula – Chariot – she told me about what you used to be like!" Akko shot back. "You weren't always… You used to be so nice to her! You were her best friend!"

At the sound of Chariot's name, Croix visibly tensed and broke away her gaze once more. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but no sound came out. She closed her eyes and pressed her lips into a thin line, looking deeply sorrowful.

"She…" Her voice trembled, thick with regret. "What did… she say about me?"

"That you believed in her." The girl's voice now was firm, resolute, but emotional. "She said you had faith when no one else did. In her. That without you, she might not have ever even become Shiny Chariot!"

It seemed that with every word out of Akko's mouth, Croix's grip on her feather pen grew tighter and tighter, and by the end it looked on the verge of snapping. Her head was tilted downwards, so that her eyes were no longer visible. When she made no move to respond, Akko continued, not at all finished yet with pressing the issue.

"'A believing heart is your magic'…"

Croix went utterly still at the too familiar words. No… Chariot couldn't have… she couldn't have told her about….

"You said that to her." Akko's voice had dropped to almost a whisper now, a volume that was very unusual for a person of as high energy as herself. "All this time… At all those shows… at the one I went to… it was from you?"

The girl folded her hands behind her back and looked at the ground sullenly. As if she couldn't reconcile the fact that the tired, broken woman in front of her was the source of one of her most deeply and sincerely held beliefs.

"…What changed? Why did… you change?"

From behind the bars, its seems to Akko as though her once professor had all but shrunk into the piles of documents around her, hunched over the desk as she was. Her shoulders were visibly trembling, but her face was hidden behind her disheveled hair and glasses. It looked as though she would physically fade into the walls of her prison.

But still, Akko waited. Waited for answers to questions she'd finally been able to give voice to, that she'd travelled through leylines and across countries to understand. It was an even longer silence that ensued, as the witch behind the bars visibly struggled with both words and emotions, shying away from her former student's relentless stare. Akko would not back off until she got what she came for, and this was silently accepted by the woman with a quiet groan.

"…I can't say, that I can change my answer much from what it was before." Croix spoke at last, leaning back in her chair so her face was visible once again. She ran a hand through her mess of hair, giving an unobstructed view of her eyes. They looked hollow, flooded with a sea of regrets.

"There is… no one to blame but myself." She muttered bluntly, not allowing herself any opening to shift responsibility or justify her wrongdoings. "When Chariot and I stood in front of the Grand Triskelion's seal that day, it was not me who was meant to wield the Claiohm Solais. If I were any reasonably decent person… I would have congratulated her for being chosen to fulfil such an important destiny. But instead, I resented her, and I never stopped my own bitterness from festering as I ought to have. I had no claim to the right in the first place, yet I had felt entitled to it anyway."

Croix sighed heavily again, now staring dully at the ceiling. She looked so tired, as if the mere act of talking was sapping away the little energy she had.

"What happened to your magical potential was never Chariot's fault, Akko. It was mine entirely. I knew she was in a desperate place, I taught her the spell and never informed her of the consequences until it was already too late. She bears no true responsibility for that incident, no matter what she might believe. I don't expect her to have told you this detail, because for some reason she just won't put the blame where its deserved."

She dares a brief glance over to the young girl who had once looked up to her for guidance and advice, and has to look away instantly at the sight of her unhappy, downcast expression. Guilt is a familiar companion to her now, but she pushes past it for the moment to continue onwards.

"You should know the rest. I then plotted for ten years to do what she could not, convincing myself that I was right about her not being worthy of the Claiomh Solais all along. And then I went out of my way to hurt her as much as possible, as if it would somehow satisfy me." She grimaced and pointedly looked away so there was no chance of her meeting Akko's gaze. "And, that included everything I did to you."

"So, there you have it." She mumbled conclusively. "There's no real deep reason to it. I was bitter and petty, and everyone I took it out on didn't deserve it. That's all there is to say."

Reluctantly, Croix forces herself to look at Akko. There was no sense in trying to spare herself from the consequences of her actions, from having to face head on the primary victim of her machinations. She didn't deserve to be shielded from whatever feelings of anger or disgust the girl would hold towards her now.

Akko however, looks significantly less… furious than Croix would have expected. That is to say, not at all. There's definite sadness in her frown, but her expression seems more… conflicted than anything else.

"But… I still don't understand one thing." The girl is playing with her hands again, looking somewhat… confused? It was strangely almost adorable. "Why did you want to unlock the Grand Triskelion so bad in the first place?"

Croix's confusion emerged to match that of the young witch on the other side of the bars.

"Really? That's what you're focusing on?" She received a helpless shrug in response, and honestly, she was starting to think she'd never understand this student that Chariot cared for so dearly. But well, Akko had asked her a question, and even though Croix knows that there was nothing she could ever do to make up for the wrong she had inflicted upon this hapless girl, it made it hard to want to deny her anything. So, she hefted another exhausted sigh, adjusting her glasses as she thought back to a time ten years prior.

"When you confronted me on that rooftop the one time… I wasn't being dishonest about wanting to restore magic to the world." From the corner of her eye, Croix notices Akko tense. A fairly reasonable reaction. It was not a pleasant night at all, no thanks to her own malicious actions.

"I did genuinely care for the future of magic," she murmured, her eyes growing distant with memory. "It used to be much simpler… I poured all my time and energy into studying and understanding it. I was good at it, and it made me… happy. But as a student, I watched as the magical world waned in relevance, and no one seemed to be doing anything about it. It was as everyone had collectively given up and decided that it was not worth salvaging. But I couldn't accept that. I desperately wanted to change that outcome, by any means necessary."

"Oh… huh…" Akko nodded her head idly, finding that she could, surprisingly, understand how the older witch had felt. "Yeah… so many people still can't see how great magic is, you know? I could never understand that."

"Mm," Croix mumbled in reply, too lost in thought to notice how sympathetic of a response Akko had given. "That was… also a part of why I grew distant from Chariot. Whereas I'd once admired her for her passion, I grew frustrated when it seemed as though she wasn't treating the restoration of magic to the world as a priority. I thought she wasn't taking it as seriously as she ought to, and well… that led to me to do… things I'm not proud of."

Groaning, she resisted the urge to slam her head into her desk. She'd had plenty of time to reflect on her past actions, plenty of time to come to a definitive conclusion on just how _stupid_ and horrible she had really been. She'd wasted a decade on her obsessive pursuits, distanced herself from the one person she should have been working with, plotted and manipulated and irrevocably _hurt_ others, and all for what? A prison sentence, the destruction of her one meaningful relationship, and the near annihilation of millions of innocent civilians. Truly, she'd lived up to her name as the touted genius of Luna Nova.

"Professor?"

Akko's voice broke her out of her depreciating thoughts before she could spiral too far into her self-loathing, but Croix wondered if she'd heard right there. From the embarrassed look of her former student, it seemed that she had.

"…You know I'm not-"

"Uh yeah! A-Ahaha, sorry, force of habit."

Croix resists the urge to shake her head, but thinks that maybe at last, she can see how her once best friend had grown so fond of this girl. She was somewhat endearing, now much easier for her to acknowledge given she wasn't, well, actively trying to ruin her life.

Which, speaking of. There was something she ought to address now, while she had the chance.

"Akko."

The girl in question tilted her head curiously.

"Yeah?"

Taking a deep breath, Croix prepared herself mentally for what she was about to say. The words felt heavy on her tongue, but it was something that needed to be done.

"…You might not want this from me." She starts, slowly. Warily. "I don't know if I even have to right to say this to you. How you respond is up to your discretion. But…"

Her throat closes up, so Croix pauses to take a breath. She closes her eyes, and the image of Akko standing outside her cell is emblazoned into her eyelids. Apprehensive, nervous, but mostly curious. Waiting with great anticipation.

"…No matter what my issues with Chariot were, you never should have been caught up in them. I've had plenty of time to realize… I should have realized sooner. You have every right to despise me, and if you wish never to see me again after today, then I will respect that to the best of my ability."

Her eyes remain shut. She's too much of a coward to look at the girl directly, it's an enormous struggle just laying her heart bare as she does now. But she cannot stop. She will not allow herself to deny her former student what she rightfully deserved.

"I… I'm sorry. For everything I did to you." Her voice is quiet and full of tension. "I'm not seeking your forgiveness. But an apology is the least of what I owe you, after…"

She groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"After the despicable way I treated you."

Croix's eyes stayed closed for a moment more, in anticipation of judgement, in acknowledgement that this didn't really change anything between them. It could never fix anything, a mere apology. Something that simple, would never be enough-

"Wow…"

That not at all being the response Croix expected, she could not help but finally open her eyes again to looked confusedly at the recipient of her sincere admission of guilt. She almost recoiled at the sight of the girl not frowning, or scowling, or presenting any kind of reasonably negative emotion. No instead she was… smiling?

"Professor Ursula was right," Akko breathed, looking somewhat in awe, in a way that reminded Croix a bit too much of how the girl had so admired her when she'd been her professor. "You're really not that bad huh?"

This was unprecedented for Croix, who had anticipated more or less any reaction that wasn't… this. She'd not too optimistically entertained the idea that _maybe_ , Akko might have considered forgiving her, but with the way the girl was all but beaming at her now, she couldn't help but feel as though some kind of significant misunderstanding had occurred between them.

"What on… Huh?" Croix shook her head in complete disbelief. There was just no way this could be happening. Akko could not seriously be willing to look past her horrendous actions, it just couldn't be the case…

"Professor Ursula said she had faith in you." The girl responded, as if that explained everything. When it did not. At all. "That you might be able to be a good person again."

The familiar pang in her heart from her old friend's misplaced belief in her aside, Croix wasn't sure if she was willing to accept this outcome, no matter how bizarre that particular sentiment was on her part. Did she not desire forgiveness? Understanding? But this didn't feel right. It was far too… easy. Unearned. Undeserved.

"Akko listen, just because I'm willing to apologize for something doesn't make me… a good person." She tried, weakly, to present a rebuttal. "It doesn't erase anything of what I did."

"But you mean it, don't you?"

"I… well…"

"If you know what you did was wrong, and you feel bad about it, then it's already a good thing you're doing!" Akko chirps brightly. "It's better than, uh, pretending you did nothing wrong at all, right?"

Croix responded with a rather withering look. "That's not a very high standard."

"But credit should be given where credit is due!" Akko quips back, crossing her arms and nodding affirmatively to herself, as if she had it all figured out. "It's a step in the right direction! Well, I shouldn't be surprised, anyone that Shiny Chariot liked so much could only be a good person at heart!"

Unnoticed by the young witch-in-training, Croix visibly stiffens at that bold exclamation, trying fervently not to acknowledge how her heart had most certainly missed a beat there. She was sure Akko had only meant it in the most platonic sense anyway, there was no need to think too hard about it.

"Akko," she tries to intervene before her mind has the chance to dwell, "listen, I uh, appreciate if you're trying to make me feel better about what I did, but you really don't have-"

"That's not it at all!"

Akko's face is suddenly pressed against the other side of the bars, and Croix almost falls backwards out of her chair. She readjusts her glasses (they'd been knocked somewhat askew) and finds herself impressed and almost slightly frightened by how quickly the girl had moved, in a manner that came disturbingly close to resembling teleportation.

"Look, you were kinda mean and made some bad decisions, but that doesn't mean you're just stuck that way forever!"

Croix thought that Akko's choice of words made for the most severe understatement of the century, but found it difficult to muster a response in the face of her former student's sheer strength of energetic passion. Her eyes burned with the intensity of a respectable bonfire.

"And you know, it's possible to change! If you knew what you did wrong, then why wouldn't you? Chariot believes in you! And when you finally get out of prison and everything, you'll be able to go back and make it up to her! And you could be friends again!"

Where Croix once considered the girl's naivety to be utter foolishness, a weakness to exploit, it now felt almost precious to witness. There was a purity to it, how she gave forgiveness so easily, how she believed so deeply in the inherent goodness of others. It seemed there were no limits to the extent of her goodwill. However…

She gave a sad, tired smile.

"You're a lot like her you know." When Akko looked at her inquisitively, Croix chuckled quietly before responding.

"Chariot. She was just like you, at your age. In some ways, she still hasn't changed."

"Oh, woah really?!" Akko looked flattered, and well, given her unabashed admiration for the former entertainer, it was just about the highest form of praise she could have received from anyone. "G-Gee, I mean, well that's pretty awesome I guess."

Yes, Akko and Chariot really were birds of a feather. Kind, goodhearted people that enriched the lives of everyone around them.

There were better places for them to expend their time and energy than on her.

"Thank you, Akko."

She meant it truly, with every part of her being that wasn't nasty and selfish and all around horrible. Ugly things that didn't deserve to be around this kindhearted child, that had already caused her enough hardship in the past.

"I'm glad that you think that way, but I'm not worth it."

She felt so exhausted now, even more so than before. In a way, Akko's optimism had drained her of what little energy she did have nowadays.

"You should be spending your time elsewhere, with people who deserve it. Like Chariot. She's been in a much better place since you've entered her life, you know? …You ought to tell her to move on from me too. I'm… not the kind of person either of you should be associating with anyway."

She winces a little inwardly when she looks up and sees Akko's expression of hurt. For what, Croix couldn't understand. Surely even she could see why? Even now, when trying to ward off the misery that spending extended amounts of time with her would be sure to result in, she was still causing this girl great unhappiness.

Akko opened her mouth, likely to argue, but at this moment there was a knock on the door and the prison guard poked his head in.

"Miss Kagari, your time is up."

The young witch wheeled around in disbelief.

"What? No way, does it have to be now?!"

"I'm afraid any longer would be a breach of our regulations. Please, allow me to escort you and your headmistress out of the facility."

Akko looked between the guard and the prisoner, a look of helpless frustration evident on her face. Croix took pity and decided to aid in the only way she knew how.

"Enjoy your time at Luna Nova, Akko. Don't waste any more of it on me."

The girl looked at her, a complex mixture of emotions battling for dominance in her conflicted auburn eyes. It was obvious she wasn't willing to leave yet, but the guard's expectant stare and the finality of Croix's self-depreciating statement rapidly wore down her resistance. After a long, frustrated pause, her mouth turned downwards into a pout and she reluctantly headed towards the door.

Croix watched her for a few moments before turning back to the document sat in front of her, ready to continue her work. But, contrary to her expectations, Akko was not finished with her just yet.

"I'm going to come back okay!? And I won't stop, until you never talk about yourself that way again! I'll make you understand!"

And with that final declarative promise, Akko turned with a determined huff and left the room. The door clicked shut behind her, the cell left quietly occupied by the single prisoner once more.

* * *

 **Haha there I promised the ramen trash would appear soon. I don't know if I can update next week because I'm drowning in essays but I'll try my best OTL.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Akko had barely said a word since they've exited the facility, an abnormality that doesn't escape the notice of her teammates.

Naturally wary of anything that could induce silence on the teammate that never closed her mouth, Lotte sends at least three questioning glances to Sucy, and received three uncertain shrugs in response. She finally realizes that her other roommate will be of little help, and decides to take a gander at breaking Akko's silence a few minutes after they've risen into the leyline. Just a slight ways ahead of them is Holbrooke, humming contentedly to herself.

"Akko?"

Her friend looks like she's been jolted from her thoughts and scrambles to respond.

"No I'm- I, uh, yeah?"

Lotte frowns in concern as she looks to where Akko is currently seated behind Sucy on her broom.

"What's wrong? Did… did Professor Croix say something mean to you?"

Her friend's eyes widen and she starts waving her hands in protest, almost toppling off the broom as she did so. Sucy deigns to offer any kind of assistance.

"What!? Oh, no no no, it was nothing like that!"

"Then spill the beans, it must be a pretty big deal to make _you_ think this hard."

Akko glared, only resisting the idea of giving Sucy a pinch given that it was currently her broom she was riding on.

"It's just that, well… Professor Croix…"

She frowned sullenly and kicked her legs a little as she recounted what their former teacher had said to her. By the end, Lotte looks rather surprised, and Sucy, well, looks the same as before, but it wasn't like Akko had expected anything else.

"So yeah," she concludes, her cheeks puffing as she slumped against the nearest surface, which happened to be the back of Sucy's shoulder. "The way she was talking about herself, it just didn't feel… right, you know?"

The girl in front of her grunted at the contact as she replied. "Well, wouldn't most people hate themselves after doing what she did? At least it means her moral compass exists."

"But still!" Akko protested, slightly peeved by the nonchalant response. "No one should talk like that, or think of themselves that way! That's so sad!"

Sucy shrugged, the motion shifting Akko's head slightly from where her cheek was still pressed.

"You can't really do anything about that though, right? What's the point of working yourself up over it?"

Akko sat up straight again and crossed her arms, which surprisingly did not cause her to lose her balance this time. "Hey! Who says I can't do anything about it? As a matter of fact, I completely intend to!"

Her roommate turned her head slightly to look at her, bemused.

"You're actually planning to come back again?"

"Yes, of course! I'm not just gonna leave her like that!"

Sucy just sighed in resignation at that. "Figured as much."

"But you know… That's really sad, what happened."

Akko peered curiously over to where Lotte was keeping pace next to them, the bespectacled young witch having spoken for the first time since Akko had recounted her conversation with the imprisoned inventor. There was a rather downcast expression on her pale, speckled face.

"You know, what happened between Professor Ursula and Professor Croix." Lotte responded to their inquisitive stares. "It sounds like they used to be really close… but now, just because of the Shiny Rod…"

Her expression was downcast, and Akko found her own to quickly match it.

"Yeah…" She mumbled, slumping back onto Sucy's shoulder. "I can't believe that thing caused so many problems…"

"Wasn't that kind of petty though?" Her roommate grumbled in front of her, prompting Akko prod her accusingly in the shoulder.

"Hey, maybe it was, but it was complicated! And we're past that already! Right now the point is that I have to get Professor Croix to realize she's not as bad as she thinks she is!"

Sucy mumbles something that sounds like lukewarm agreement, not having a particularly strong desire to convince her otherwise. The bickering between her roommates makes Lotte giggle lightly as she watches.

"Okay you two," she intervenes, as Akko starts shaking Sucy's shoulders in a futile attempt to coax more enthusiasm out of her. "We're here already."

Holbrooke has already landed by the time they exit the leylines, and she beckons them over with a hand gesture.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to eavesdrop" their elderly headmistress began as Lotte and Sucy alighted their brooms in the grass in front of her, "but I could not help overhearing some of your conversation. Miss Kagari, have you an interest in visiting Croix at another time?"

Akko's mouth dropped open as she hopped off the back of Sucy's broom, then she nodded her head eager with her hands clenched into fists.

"Yes!" She exclaimed, her eyes bright with determination. "There's no way I'm leaving it just like that! Headmistress you saw how she was!"

The warmth in Holbrooke's smile seemed to grow.

"And? What do you intend to do about that?"

Akko paused, then shrugged uncertainly, somehow not looking any less driven in spite of it.

"I don't know, I'll figure it out. But to do that I'll definitely have to see her again!"

Holbrooke hummed approvingly.

"I'm glad to hear it, Miss Kagari. Then, I'll see what I can do to obtain permission for your future visits."

There was a beat of silence as Akko and Lotte wore matching gapes. Sucy only hummed and took another peek into her bag. Holbrooke continued to smile serenely.

"Woah what serious?!" Akko shrieked, having already thought up at least seven different potential schemes of how she'd go about getting past the strict visitation restrictions. "You really mean it?"

"It's thoughtful of you to want to want to help her, Miss Kagari." Holbrooke responded, her eyes twinkling in amusement at Akko's boundless energy. "I unfortunately cannot stop by as much as I'd like, so I'm elated that you'd be willing to give her some company. As such, I'm more than happy to aid you in this endeavor."

At a rare loss for words, Akko could only bow deeply and sputter her gratitude, Holbrooke giving one final chuckle of amusement before she departed with a wave goodbye. The girl returned the gesture with far greater energy, albeit still looking somewhat dazed at how smoothly events had somehow turned out again.

"That's bizarre," Sucy muttered, as their headmistress faded into the distance. Lotte turned to her curiously.

"I-I suppose it was a bit surprising that Headmistress Holbrooke was so… okay with this, but it's nice that we didn't get punished for once."

"That's exactly it," was Sucy's deadpan response. "We went with Akko's impulse of the week and nothing went horribly wrong."

"You almost sound disappointed." Akko grumbled, crossing her arms.

"Not almost. I am. You're losing your touch."

"Anyways!" Lotte interjected, before her roommates had the chance to start squabbling again, "Akko, isn't that great? You'll be able to see Professor Croix whenever you want now!"

The girl blinked, snapping her mouth shut on the retort she'd been about to shoot back at Sucy, spreading it instead into a wide grin at the reminder of good news.

"Hah! Yeah, you're right!"

Puffing up her chest with confidence, she turned around to face the leyline entrance, glaring as determinedly as if she were staring the miserable inventor in the face right now.

"Just you wait Professor! That wasn't the last you'll see of me! On my Shiny Chariot deck, I swear it!"

* * *

"No way," Amanda whispered, her voice absent of its usual boredom and replaced by utter awe.

Akko grinned and nodded proudly, arms crossed.

"No," Amanda repeated, the word stretched tensely with disbelief. "Shit, I'm not convinced."

The brunette gasped in semi-mock offense. "You don't _trust_ my word?"

"You're telling me you not only went to _Aquila Aureae_ , but you also got inside and spoke to a _convict_? No shit I'm skeptical."

To this, Akko smugly reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out a small visitor's pass, sliding it across the cafeteria table towards her doubtful friend. On either side of her, Jasminka and Constanze leaned over in curiosity, the latter having to stand to do so. Amanda picked it up gingerly and peered closely at the neatly printed gold text, turning it over in her hands as if she could somehow discern its authenticity in this way.

"Look at it all you want." Akko spoke loftily, seeming very much satisfied of herself. "All I gotta do is show this at the front desk and I can go in to see her."

Giving it one final look over, Amanda sucked in a breath and slid it back across the table.

"No way. You could have fabricated that."

"Well, if you really can't accept being _wrong_ , you can come along next time and I'll show you."

She met Amanda's scrutiny with utter confidence. The other girl was scrunching up her mouth, clearly unsure if she should call a bluff.

"That's so cool Akko!" Jasminka broke in, instantly shattering her team leader's concentration and causing her to almost lose balance on the chair she was currently sitting backwards on. She returned the glare Amanda sent her with an ever-pleasant smile. "But, why did you want to see Professor Croix in the first place?"

"Ah… Well, you see…"

Akko lowered her voice and quickly gave a brief recount of the events of the past few days. By the end, one of Amanda's eyebrows had almost risen into her hairline.

"Really? And you're just okay with the whole, 'almost blew up another country' thing?"

"Well she feels bad about it! Mistakes happen!"

"You're amazing," Amanda muttered. "But I guess it we did get to do all of that cool stuff at least. And that missile was pretty sick."

To that, Constanze made a small noise of agreement and nodded vigorously.

"So, uh, yeah, I was wondering if you guys could help me out a bit? I still can't really fly well enough to go alone, and I don't want to just keep dragging Sucy and Lotte along everytime."

"So you're gonna drag us along instead," Amanda noted drily. Akko at least had the sense to give a sheepish shrug.

"Okay!" Jasminka chirped cheerfully, hesitating briefly on the crisp she was holding. "I don't mind. It's such a nice thing you're doing! Constanze, you help too!"

Her diminutive roommate looked hesitant for a few moments, before shrugging and giving a thumbs-up. Amanda looked back and forth between her teammates with some bewilderment before sighing and slumping forward.

"Eh, fine. Guess it might be cool to see what that place looks like at least."

Akko gasped, practically bouncing on the spot with glee.

"Oh my god guys, thank you soooo much! You're all the best!"

"Sorry, might I interrupt?"

And just as fast, all the good cheer drained from Akko's face, to be replaced with panic as she hastily grabbed her visitor's pass from the table and shoved it back inside her skirt before turning to face the source of the familiar dainty voice.

"Oh! Diana! F-Fancy seeing you!"

The young heiress raised an eyebrow at that, suspicion already slightly peaked.

"We are all on lunch break Akko, I hardly think it would be surprising for us to encounter one another under these circumstances."

Akko answered that with an embarrassed laugh, already cursing herself for her poor choice of words. If Diana noticed her inner turmoil, she did not comment on it.

"Amanda, I am here to deliver a message from Professor Nelson. She says that you failed to attend detention yesterday evening, and that you are to see her at once."

At this, the rebellious teen groaned and slammed her head into the desk. "Ah shit, knew there was something I forgot again…"

Diana's queenly mask of neutrality cracked temporarily in favour of mild exasperation, something that occurred with much greater frequency now since the rather exciting events of the previous term. She quickly recollected herself however, and turned to Akko.

"I am sorry, I did not eavesdrop, but might I inquire what you four were discussing earlier? I saw you try to hide something from my view. I assure you that so long as it isn't breaching school regulations, I would not judge you."

Amanda raised her head at that.

"Oh, yeah, you really need to hear this Cavendish. Akko was just telling us about how she-"

"How I win all my Shiny Chariot card games of course!"

Amanda looked at her incredulously, but Akko shot her a glare, a silent request to play along, as she smoothly drew forth her most treasured possession and placed it on the table.

"As I was saying, the metagame is very complex. There are hidden intricacies in the details of each card, and some plays are only applicable under unique circumstances. But if you can set the pace of the game early, you can create opportunities to use each card to its full potential."

She stared pleadingly at her three friends sitting opposite to her. Jasminka was already nodding along pleasantly, while Constanze had tuned out halfway through her explanation to fiddle with her Stanbot. Amanda looked somewhat confused, but mumbled a noise of hesitant affirmation.

Satisfied, Akko turned back to Diana with an innocent smile on her face. Her former rival, thank the Nine Olde Witches, seemed to have been successfully convinced by her ploy and gave a small smile as she looked at the card with some measure of fondness.

"Ah, I understand. You really did not have to hide that from me Akko, I thought we had already discussed this." She received a sheepish laugh and a shrug. "Well, I won't interrupt for any longer in that case, as I have other matters to attend to. Amanda, please do not forget your appointment with Professor Nelson. Good day."

And with that, Luna Nova's young prodigy strode off. Akko waited until she'd turned the corner before slumping against the table with a sigh of relief.

"That was way too close…"

"Uh, remind me, was this supposed to be a secret?" Amanda asked, still looking somewhat bemused.

"A secret at least from _her_ , okay?" Akko responded, her heart rate still not having slowed from the close call. "Can you imagine how she'd react if I told her I'm going to go start visiting a criminal in prison on a regular basis?"

Amanda paused.

"Fair point."

"And while you're at it, please don't mention it to Professor Ursula too," Akko mumbled. "I get the feeling she wouldn't be too happy to find out about this either."

"Well, okay, I guess. You might as well just keep it a secret from everyone else too then, I don't think the rest of the school would ever shut up about it if they found out."

To that, Akko gave a groan of weary agreement.

* * *

Two days later, Akko scratched her head as she stood in the Herbology section of the library, frowning in concentration as she scanned the rows of titles. Every now and then she glanced at the list of texts in her hands that Sucy asked her to retrieve when classes were over for the day. Her roommate mentioned something about going to see Lukic afterschool with the mushrooms she'd cultivated on her trip to Aquila Aureae, seeming unusually pleased with herself.

Akko grumbled quietly in recollection of the memory, given just how long the list the was and how evasive some of the items on it had proven to be. She pulled the last book off its shelf and placed it on top of the stack containing the rest, then found herself balking at its formidable height. Resigned to her task, she lifted them off the table with a sound of effort before heading towards the check out, huffing audibly from the strain.

Her head was poked out to the side, given that the stack was too tall for her to reliably see over, when she passes by the shelf of Luna Nova student records. Eyes widening, she came to an abrupt stop, her cargo wobbling dangerously from the sudden halt.

After depositing Sucy's books onto the nearest desk, Akko returned to the shelf, struck by the realization that she had never actually looked up Chariot's profile in the records. Given that she now knew her idol personally and had her as her very own mentor, it felt a little strange to be doing so, but her curiosity ultimately triumphed over any potential misgivings. This was still about Shiny Chariot after all, how could she really resist?

Retrieving the appropriate volume, she couldn't help but feel the familiar surge of excitement as she turned to the correct page. The printed image of her idol beams up at her, eyes gleaming bright and mouth turned up in a dazzling smile. It's just how Akko always remembered her to look, from her cards and posters and the show in Japan, albeit in this photo still a few years younger. To the side of her picture is a small list of the honours she'd earned during her academic tenure, of which included her victory in the broom race relay and her title of Moonlit witch. Akko can't help but grin herself, giddy at the acknowledgement of her idol's achievements.

It does give her brief pause to remember though that she was also actually looking at her professor, something that, while she knew now to be factually true, still gave her an odd sense of disconnect. Other than the identical vibrant colour of their hair, there seemed so little in the way of similarity between Professor Ursula and the excited young girl staring up at her from the page. Indeed, it was almost impossible to imagine such an innocently carefree expression on her mentor as she was nowadays, absent of any doubt or nervous shyness.

Musing on that thought, Akko found her struck by a different line of curiosity. Closing the volume currently in her hands, she replaced it on the shelf and instead pulls out the one sitting to its left. Flipping through the pages, she scrolled through unfamiliar names and photographs until at last she found what she'd been looking for.

Her eyes widen as she stares down at a sixteen-year-old Croix Meridies.

 _This is…. Professor Croix?_

The young girl on the page couldn't have looked any different from the woman she'd become ten years later, with her long scruffy hair and square glasses and unenthused frown of boredom. And while Akko had caught glimpses before of the photograph that her professor seemed to hold so dear, she'd never had such a close-up look before at the Luna Nova prodigy of a generation prior. Not to mention that, from the little she had seen of that picture, she'd at least been able to discern that Croix had been smiling in that one. In this, she certainly…. wasn't.

Inevitably, as Akko read through the significantly lengthier list of awards, she can't help but think of her former teacher as she is in the present, her spirits somewhat dampened as she does so. There could be no doubt that, as a prodigy, her potential had been boundless even as a teenager, but it was downright depressing now to stare at the frowning girl on the page, knowing just how she'd end up ten years in the future.

To Akko's credit, she remains disheartened for all of ten seconds before setting her mouth into a determined frown. It was clearer to her than ever before, what she needed to do.

"I gotta go talk to her again…" she mumbled, locking eyes with the decade-old image of the ex-professor. "She's not… she's not as terrible as she thinks she is. I know she's not."

"Akko?"

A freezing cold sensation of dread flushes through her body as she jumped in alarm, having recognized the familiar voice and its ever-present tone of mild concern. Just before she shrieks her response, a hand clamped over her mouth.

Chariot raises a finger to her lips, eyes wide with panic as she makes a quiet shushing noise.

" _Not in the library Akko,"_ she whispers with barely audible intensity, withdrawing her hand with a relieved sigh when her student gives a sheepish nod of embarrassment. "Now then, was there something bothering you-"

Her eyes trail down to the book Akko has opened, freezing at the familiar sight of lilac hair.

"Is that… W-Wait, why are you looking up Croix's school record?"

Akko gaped as would a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar. There's no point in slamming the book shut now, and she floundered to cover up her intentions.

"I-I, oh, n-nothing! I was just, curious! About… stuff. Er… yeah."

To this Chariot frowned, and for a few terrifying seconds Akko expected her to see through the white lie with ease, but instead her teacher only murmured "Oh… Is this… because of what I told you that day?"

To that, Akko hesitated for a brief moment before nodding uncertainly with a stammered "Ah… y-yes, of course!". Thankfully, her mentor seemed to take her response at face value, sighing again as she crossed her arms.

"Right… I suppose I should have figured you'd only be more curious…"

Against all her better judgement, Chariot found her gaze trailing downwards to settle on the image of a ten years younger Croix. Leaning forward slightly for a better look, she has to resist the urge to chuckle lightly at the rather nostalgic sight of her friend's disgruntled expression, as she was so often privy to bearing in her youth.

"Ah, I remember this," she murmurs, a small smile on her lips. "Believe it or not, she did look like this all the time."

"Really?" Akko exclaimed. Chariot winced and motioned for a quieter volume, to which her student obliged with a hapless shrug of apology. "I mean, I know you said she was a grump but like, aaaaall the time?"

The girl's bewilderment does draw a quiet laugh out of Chariot now.

"Oh yes, like you wouldn't believe." She recounts, eyes growing fond at the memory. "She wasn't even upset that often, but because she looked like it, everyone was always afraid to talk to her. I think she might have been proud of that."

"That's ridiculous," Akko mutters, and Chariot can't help but agree with that. "She looks so grouchy."

"Well, she certainly was a grouch," the professor chuckles. "I don't think she looks different in any of the other pictures in the records. They should have a few more at the end of that volume, if I remember correctly."

Akko promptly flips to the back of the book, making a sound of disbelief as she scours through the pages.

"No kidding," she whispers, keeping the volume of her voice under control this time. "Did she ever smile? Ever?"

"Yes of course," Chariot giggles, covering her hand with her mouth so as to keep the noise down. "Usually only in private though. I believe she once mentioned something about 'keeping a reputation'".

Akko's eyes suddenly light up, as if she's remembered something, and she turns to her professor with an enormous grin.

"Oh yeah!" she exclaims quietly, "The picture you took with her! She was smiling in that one!"

Startled, Chariot instinctively leant away from the intensity of her student's sudden enthusiasm.

"O-Oh yes, well, you are, correct. About that."

"Oh, I get it!" Akko's grin somehow seemed to expand even further, an oft present twinkle of delight in her eyes now. "She must have smiled a lot when she was with you!"

"N-Not untrue, I s-suppose..." Chariot stuttered, suddenly finding it difficult to speak.

"That means, she must have been really happy when she was with you!" Akko continued, innocently oblivious of the how her professor had begun to nervously fidget. "I mean, that's like, literally the only picture where she's not grumpy, right?"

"I-I… oh… er… w-well, that's certainly a… possible…. thing… I don't know if… If it was _only_ with me…"

"Do you have it on you right now Professor? I want to see!"

"Er…"

Chariot briefly considered trying to escape the situation in a way that wouldn't require her to… lie outright. Caught in the centre of Akko's eagerly expectant gaze, that desire quickly crumbled.

"Well I… don't see why not…"

With some embarrassment, she reached into the folds of her uniform and procured the picture in question, wondering if it looked strange for her to still be carrying it around with her all the time. Whether or not that was true, Akko seemed to pay it no heed as she darted closer for a better look, peeking her head over her professor's arm as she did so.

"Wow, she looks way happier." The young witch uttered, briefly looking between the record book and the photograph held carefully in her idol's hands for comparison.

"D-Does she now?" Chariot's hand shot up to her mouth, praying that Akko hadn't heard the crack in her voice.

"Yeah, she looks way better like this. Don't you think so too, Professor?"

Taking a moment to collect herself, Chariot took a deep breath to calm her frazzled nerves. This was ridiculous of her, she wasn't a teenager anymore. And Akko's inquiries were completely innocent. It wasn't as if she were implying anything after all. Not that, there was anything to imply. Because there certainly wasn't.

"A-Ah, well, of course," she answered as neutrally as possible.

"You two were best friends, right? Oooh, or were you also, maybe rivals too? Because you were both so cool! You must have gone on like, awesome magic adventures together yeah?!"

Chariot made to respond, but Akko steamrolled ahead without waiting for an answer, motor mouth triggered and running at full speed.

"Oh, but wait, didn't you used to have a hard time with magic? Did you get Professor Croix to help you?"

"A-Akko, w-wait-"

"She was like, a super genius or something right? Like Diana! She must have!"

"E-Er, w-well-"

"Oh, wait, Diana bails me out of accidents and stuff all the time too! Does that mean she also had to-"

"O-Oh would you look at the time!" Chariot barely resisted shrieking, the exclamation resembling more an extremely strained, high-pitched squeak as she hastily shoved the photograph back into her uniform. "I have… important duties to attend to now! I'm sorry, we will have to continue this later!"

Her face as red as her hair, the professor promptly fled the situation. Her long strides carried her to the nearest exit before Akko could so much as blink in shock at the promptitude with which her mentor had vanished.

As she recovered, she couldn't help but place her hands on her hips with a disgruntled pout. Her professor always seemed reluctant to share the details of her childhood, and from what Akko could discern, the only reason she did so was out of general embarrassment of her younger self. Which, to Akko, made no sense. It couldn't be anything that much worse compared to her own landslide of humiliating errors during her time at Luna Nova after all.

But, given that she couldn't force her professor to say anything she didn't want to (and having developed enough maturity to understand that, she shouldn't), the young witch was ready to reluctantly give up on that cause as she went to retrieve Sucy's towering stack of texts from where she'd set it down on the table.

And that, was when inspiration struck.

* * *

 **Still alive ya'll, sorry its taken me way longer than intended to update this. Idk how consistent I'll be with this because this term is a bit more intense than the last one, but I'll do my best** **(•̀ᴗ•́)و**

 **A small note: Akko has only told Lotte and Sucy the full extent of what Croix did, not Green and Blue team (Diana, however, might have her suspicions). All they know is that she did the thing with the nuke that almost blew up a bunch of people.**


End file.
